NFL Announces Rule Changes for 2017 Season

This past week, the NFL Competition Committee announced many significant rule changes to be implemented in the 2017 NFL season. Among these were several designed to increase player safety by, as Falcons President and Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay described, avoiding putting "players in a position in which we think there is an unreasonable risk of injury." Although official language of the new rules hasn't been written yet, the NFL released a rundown of the approved proposals on Tuesday. Among these rule changes that center around player safety are a rule that prohibits jumping over the line to block a field goal or extra point attempt, a rule that gives all receivers running a passing route "defenseless player" protections, a rule that bans crack blocks by a player who is in motion, and a rule that ejects a player who receives two certain types of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in one game.

In terms of reaction from the media and the public, the most controversial rule change is likely the ban of leaping over the line to block a kick. This difficult play has become extremely popular in the past couple seasons, and when executed well has brought an exciting element to an otherwise often forgettable part of games. If you watch the clip below and see Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins (91) jump over the snapper, it seems like a fairly safe play for all involved.

However, when a less athletic player, like Vikings defensive tackle Linval Joseph (98) tries to jump over the line, he puts all his weight onto the guard, who has his head and arms down and is therefore unable to protect himself from a player coming over the top. Joseph also puts himself at risk of falling on his head or neck when his legs come out from under him.

Prohibiting leaping over the line to block a kick may seem excessive, but it prevents defenseless linemen from being fallen on and prevents leapers from falling at dangerous angles. Besides, the majority of kicks are blocked by players shooting an outside gap or someone in the middle getting his arms in the air anyway, not by jumping over the line, so it's not like field goal blocks are being removed from the game entirely.

Speaking of defenseless players, another approved rule change is that all receivers who are running passing routes are now considered to be defenseless. What constitutes a "defenseless" player is subjective and often disputed, but in simple terms it's generally an offensive player who is making a certain type of motion that by its nature would prevent him from protecting himself from defenders. Some common examples would be a quarterback who is in the the motion of throwing a pass, or a receiver who is attempting to catch a pass. Because these players are unable to brace themselves for a collision or even see a hit coming, there are restrictions on where defenders are permitted to hit them; in the receiver example, the defenseless player can only be hit below the neck, and in the quarterback example, the passer can only be hit between the shoulders and thighs. Deeming all receivers who are running passing routes, even those who aren't thrown to, as being defenseless might seem extreme, but I think it's a good change that protects vicious contact that is often unseen because it happens away from the ball. In the NFL, defensive players are allowed to make contact with receivers who are running routes so long as the contact occurs within five yards of the line of scrimmage. This rule will remain; the only difference is that now, the contact put on receivers can't be to the head or neck areas.

"Defenseless" players are not always on offense. Under NFL rules, defenders who are the recipients of crack blocks are also considered defenseless, and contact put on by receivers can't occur above the shoulders or below the waist. A crack block is a block where an outside receiver runs inside and blocks a defender who would normally be head-up over the inside receiver. In the diagram on the right, you can see the X receiver is lined up on the cornerback to start the play, and the Z receiver is presumably being watched by the outside linebacker who is between the left tackle and left guard. On a normal run to the outside, X would block the corner and Z would block the linebacker; however, on a crack block, the two receivers switch assignments. The corner will see the change coming as he sees the X receiver run in instead of towards him, but the linebacker, who is focusing on the Z receiver, won't even see X before X puts him on the ground. With the new rule change, the play on this diagram would still be legal. However, receivers are no longer to crack block if they are in motion and coming from the backfield. Now, receivers can't get a running start to crack blocks before the ball is snapped, therefore reducing the force involved in crack blocks and making it easier for defenders to track where blocks may be coming from.

One last rule approved by the Competition Committee is actually one that has been in place for the last year on a temporary basis, but now is considered permanent: a player who is penalized twice in the same game for certain types of unsportsmanlike conduct is now automatically disqualified from play. In the past, some people have called this rule the "Odell Beckham Rule," after Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr received three personal fouls in a 2015 matchup against the Panthers yet was not ejected (he was later suspended for one game). Examples of unsportsmanlike conduct often include intentional helmet-to-helmet conduct, such as in the case of Beckham, and can also include things like punches or kicks.

The complete list of approved 2017 rule changes can be found here:
https://nflcommunications.com/Documents/2017%20Offseason/Approved%202017%20Playing%20Rules%20Proposals.pdf

Lance Briggs Featured in Video Campaign About CTE

Since the days of Dick Butkus in the late 1960s, to Mike Singletary in the 1980s, to Brian Urlacher in the 2000s, the Chicago Bears' linebackers have been always been known for their hard-nosed and physical style of play. In recent years, this identity was embodied by Lance Briggs, who played his entire 12 seasons in the NFL with the Bears from 2003-2015.

Briggs is now working on a video campaign with Sqor Sports, where he describes his experiences as a professional football player and his concern over CTE. In the first video, available on Sqor's website, he stated “I get concerned for myself. And even though I’ve never had any suicidal thoughts or anything like that, for it to happen to some great men and great football players, I know that I can’t separate myself from that crowd.”

Although CTE can currently only be officially diagnosed postmortem, many prominent players have in recent years publicly acknowledged their struggles with CTE-like symptoms and/or their concerns with what impact it may have on their lives in the future. Among these are Bo Jackson, who stated that he "would never have played football" had he known the risks of repetitive head trauma, in addition to Hall-of-Famers Brett Favre, Tony Dorsett, and Harry Carson.

Briggs' video campaign is obviously important for spreading awareness about CTE to fans of the game who may not understand what CTE is or even that it exists. Another group of individuals I hope it impacts, though, is former NFL players who may be experiencing CTE-like symptoms but are hesitant to recognize or acknowledge them. It's an unfortunate reality, but the more research about CTE that is done, the more it begins to seem like an occupational disease of playing football professionally. That's not to say that every NFL player will get CTE, and there is a sample bias within CTE research in that the brains that are studied are most often from players whose families noticed possible symptoms in them. But just like many NFL players expect to get arthritis as they get older, expect to deal with back problems, etc, they too should expect to experience some form of neurological or mental disorders.

It's heartbreaking to hear about former players, some of whom are only in their late 30s or early 40s, stating publicly their struggles with dementia, impulsiveness, depression, and other symptoms that can arise from CTE, but it's arguably even sadder to hear about people like former Chargers linebacker Junior Seau, who committed suicide back in 2012, who along with his family had to endure CTE symptoms without knowing their exact cause. In an interview with Frontline, Seau's daughter, Sydney, described how Seau grew more emotionally distant, forgetful, and had bouts of rage in the later years of his life. Yet she also stated, "obviously I never thought of a disease in this equation." Some people speculate that Seau was indeed aware of his condition, at least somewhat, because he shot himself in the chest rather than the brain. However, he left no instructions regarding a desire to have his brain medically examined. In either case, had Seau's family been aware of his infliction, or at least of its possibility, they'd have been able to take more precautionary measures and help Seau get the medical care that would help him manage his symptoms and live a quality life. Lance Briggs, for example, stressed the importance of staying mentally and physically active after football, and described his attempts to stay busy and engaged in the community. Hopefully with Briggs' example, more former players will actively monitor their well being and seek help from families and friends in their lives after football.

Dr. Bennet Omalu, Mike Webster, and the Discovery of CTE

If you were to see Mike Webster in the late 90s, sleeping at a train station or living out of his car, you'd probably never think that he played 17 seasons in the NFL, was a four-time Super Bowl champion, was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Webster was living like a vagabond, engulfed in financial debt, depression, dementia, and severe joint and muscle pain from years of anchoring the Pittsburgh Steelers' "Iron Curtain" offensive line. Of all people, Dr. Bennet Omalu certainly wouldn't recognize Webster; Omalu, who was born and raised in Nigeria, had little knowledge of or interest in football before one morning in September of 2002.

Dr. Bennet Omalu

Dr. Omalu was a physician and forensic pathologist, working at the Allegheny County Coroner's Office in Pittsburgh. While arriving at work one morning, he was surprised to find TV news vans outside and commotion around the office. He asked what was going on, and one of the technicians reported that Mike Webster had passed away. When Dr. Omalu reponsed that he didn't know who Webster wars, his Pittsburgh coworkers looked at him with shock. Webster, who passed away at 50, was only 15 years earlier the most dominant center in the NFL, and one of the most well-known people in the city.

Dr. Omalu reviewed Webster's case file. Webster, who had died in a hospital from a heart attack, had already had his death certificate signed by a physician. Normally, Dr. Omalu would not have to perform an autopsy under these circumstances. However, a physicain had also listed "Post-concussion syndrome" as a contributory factor in Webster's death. Since post-concussion syndrome is a traumatic disease, and therefore categorized as an accidental manner of death, Webster's death also fell under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner.

As Dr. Omalu became aware of Webster's recent history of depression, erratic behavior, amnesia, and dementia, he started to think that Webster may have been inflicted with Alzheimer's disease. However, although his behavior matched common signs of the disease, Webster's brain showed no physical signs of Alzheimers. Confused and intrigued, Webster took samples of the brain to study, and also sent samples to the University of Pittsburgh brain lab. When the tissues returned from the brain lab, Dr. Omalu noticed abnormal proteins in the brain and neurofibrillary tangles that were similar yet distinct from what we normally be seen in a patient with Alzheimer's disease.

For the next few months, Dr. Omalu combed through numerous scientific papers, looking for writings about brains similar to Webster's. In an interview with Frontline, he described: "In the literature, everybody was giving it descriptive names, like nobody gave it generic names. Nobody had the, I could say the courage to give it a specific disease, identify it as a specific disease entity, describe the pathology." Omalu decided to give this pathogenic concept a name, calling it "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy," or CTE: chronic" meaning the disease is long term, "traumatic" meaning caused by physical injury, and "encephalopathy" meaning abnormal brain function or brain disease.

Mike Webster (52)

For the next several years, Dr. Omalu, along with colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, continued to study Webster's brain. In July 2005, a little under three years after Webster's death, they published "Chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a National Football League player" in in the medical journal Neurosurgery. Dr. Omalu recollected with Frontline: "I was excited. I thought the football industry would be happy with our new discovery. I thought naively that discovery of new information, unraveling new information, redefining concepts, I thought the football industry would...turn it into some type of utility, some type of utility function to enhance the game." However, his studies were met with strong backlash by the NFL. He was a young, virtually unknown physician from Nigeria perceived to be be attacking the American way of life, and NFL doctors sent him letters demanding his paper be retracted. Dr. Omalu was worried about the very future of his career. However, after former Steelers guard Terry Long, who had been a teammate of Mike Webster, committed suicide in 2005, Dr. Omalu had the chance to study Long's brain as well. He also spoke with Long's wife, who stated that Terry Long had exhibited many of the same mental symptoms as did Webster. After finding the same neurological damage in Long's brain as he'd seen in Webster's, Omalu doubled down a published another paper as a follow up to the first.

Dr. Omalu's discoveries generated a cascade of scientific research, media coverage, reactions from the NFL, and public attention that have revolutionized the way people look at football and concussions in the past decade and a half. His discoveries gained even more national attention a couple years ago with the movie Concussion, which stars Will Smith as Dr. Omalu and tells a narrative strongly based on Omalu's real experiences studying CTE and fighting against backlash from the NFL. Overall, the discovery of CTE is so significant because it reveals that concussions not only cause brain damage in the acute sense, but that repetitive brain trauma occurring over a long period of time can lead to dementia, depression, and other symptoms later in life. In addition to former football players, CTE has also been identified in combat veterans, and professional athletes of various other sports such as hockey, wrestling, and boxing, among others.